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Volunteering for Success

Website helps students find volunteer opportunities

San Diego Community College District students looking for volunteer opportunities can peruse a new District webpage Volunteer Connect, which is filled with volunteering options posted by local organizations and community groups ranging from the United Way to SAY San Diego.

All a nonprofit or community organization has to do is complete an online form that is available on the website and submit it for review. The District’s Outreach Office will vet all submissions before posting them on the website.

Giving your time to a worthy cause as a volunteer has a strong history in America. Whether as a "candy striper" who assists in a variety of roles in hospitals, passing out food for the homeless or cleaning out canyons of trash and debris, citizens have contributed millions of hours of their time without ever considering doing it for pay.

More recently, career/business writers and counselors have promoted volunteering as a way to gain skills and bridge the gap between jobs. So much so, that job seekers are asking employers to work without pay just to prove their eagerness to work or as a way to convince the emloyers they should hire them.

A recent example is a woman approaching a San Diego firm with her resume and when told there were no openings, said she would be willing to volunteer at the firm. Although at first glance this seems like a good move on the part of the job seeker, the firm had no plan or desire to have a volunteer handle confidential financial documents of their clients and could not consider the request. Where would a request like this be considered appropriate? At a non-profit organization, a professional association or maybe a school where they have programs specifically set up for volunteers.

Keep in mind that job seekers are also competing for intern positions and businesses are being inundated with those requests also.

If you do wish to volunteer, with or without the idea of skills-building or filling in job gaps...contact an organization that you have a special interest in, or, there are several local clearinghouses for volunteer opportunities listed below.

There is also a pretty good website devoted to working with and/or volunteering with non-profit organizations.